Great Fermator Gathering: Stronger Together

Fermator hosted more than 400 solution partners, invited from five continents, at its headquarters.

As a result of the unprecedented snowstorm in the south of Spain in January 2021, the roof of the Falset, Spain, factory of global automatic door manufacturer Fermator collapsed, unable to withstand the heavy snow mass. It was the biggest source of consolation that no injuries or loss of life occurred in the disaster, which occurred when the factory was out of operation. Getting organized in a short time due to the unexpected disaster, the Fermator team first moved planned production to other factories, preventing any possible supply problems. Subsequently, in a record time of nine months, a new 14,000 m2 reinforced concrete factory was constructed and production was restarted. 

With the motto “Stronger Together,” Fermator team hosted more than 400 guests from 29 countries on June 1-2, 2023,  to introduce its solution partners to the new factory.

The First Day

Guests arriving at the international Barcelona airport and the train station were directed to the hotels where they would stay by buses, arranged in a well-planned manner. After resting for a while at the hotel, we took the buses to Mas La Boella, which has a Michelin-starred restaurant, for dinner. The guests, who met for the first time at the open-air cocktail party with live music in the magnificent garden of La Boella, had the opportunity to chat and take pictures together in an exquisite atmosphere. Following conversation and introductions during the long cocktail time, guests went to the spacious El Gran Pabellón restaurant inside for dinner. While guests were tasting the unique Catalan cuisine, host Fermator’s Global Sales Manager Eduard Amigó gave a welcome speech on the stage set in the restaurant. Then, Ramón Gomis, the founder of Fermator, took the floor and said, “This event was organized to share our new situation in the world. Tomorrow, we can see our new factory and the many changes that have taken place in the company over the last two or three years. The factory in Falset is brand new and is composed of a new area, new investments, new machines and novel technologies. We are so ready for the future because we have many excellent professional teams in our group to professionalize our company. We fully support this excellent team. I can tell you that this is possible, if we are all together. A secure future is not possible without your support, and I think we will have a great future.”

Belen Gomis, daughter of Ramón Gomis, said, “We are proud to host business people from 29 countries across various parts of the world. Home is where family is, and you are our big family — colleagues, partners, customers and even future customers … I may not have had the opportunity to introduce myself personally to all of you tonight; I am Ramón Gomis’ second daughter. I am an engineer like him, and although Fermator has been in my life since I was born, I officially joined the company last September. I still learn from you and the organization every day. I am truly grateful for all your help, and my greatest goal is to assist you in any way I can in the near future. As my father stated, about two years ago, we decided to professionalize the company within the family. With such a valuable team, we understood that it was time to take a step forward and let our professionals do their best. Now, two years later, we can say that we made the right decision back then. We are very proud of our team, from the first to the last person. Today, our home is yours; more than ever, you are part of our family.” 

After Ramón Gomis, Production Centers Coordinator Josep Monroig stated that Fermator has 12 factories around the world and gave detailed information about the markets where these production bases are strong. 

Amigó said, “I didn’t learn much in college, but a professor once told me ‘If you tell me who your friends are , I’ll tell you your future,’ and I think if we apply this to business, it would be, “If you tell me who your customers are, I’ll tell you about the future of your company.” With your response to this invitation, we can be sure that our future looks bright and is filled with various opportunities for further growth. Why have we organized this event?  As Mr. Ramón Gomis said, some changes were made in the company to transform it from a family business to a professional company. We also wanted to create an opportunity to be together after almost four years of a global pandemic during which we had to stay in our homes. We did not have the opportunity to attend fairs, but you know how important fairs are for us to come together. We met all of you at fairs before we came together. That’s why we think we should do something together again. But this is not the only reason; there is another very important reason: You all know what happened to us two years ago. Two years ago, Spain witnessed the most severe snowstorm, Filomena, and unfortunately, two days of snowfall caused the complete collapse of one of our factories. It was not the roof that collapsed, not a part of the roof, but the whole factory. Companies show their strength not when things are going well, but when there are big threats, and that was a big threat to us. We were supplying doors to large multinational companies from that factory. The next day, we were able to resolve the issue quickly by negotiating with our six factories producing in Europe and shifting production to other factories to restore the product supply chain. Then, despite the global material supply problem, being able to complete the new factory from scratch in just nine months was a great opportunity for us to show our strength in a very short time. That’s the story we think is worth telling today. One of the reasons we decided to do this event today is because of the people who saw what was done and asked Fermator what happened.” 

The Second Day

On the morning of the second day, we set off from the hotel to visit the renovated 14,000-m² Doors Movement Technology S.L (DMT) factory in Falset which was built specifically to be specialized in manufacturing high-quality commodity automatic doors solutions, maximizing the time/production capacity. When we arrived at the factory, which offered a sunny and beautiful view, we visited the new factory in groups after having snacks in the giant fair tent set up in the garden.  During the visit, we had the opportunity to see how the doors reaching the customers are meticulously organized from production to packaging, thanks to the detailed explanations of both the group representatives and the staff in the factory.

After the DMT factory in Falset, we set out again in groups to visit the Tecnolama S.A. factory, the headquarters of Fermator in Reus. After taking a break with cold drinks in the huge tent set up at the entrance of the Reus factory, in the same way, we had the opportunity to visit the door factory, test and R&D center of Tecnolama SA, which is established on a 21,000 m² area in groups for tailor made solutions doors factory, equipped with high technology machinery such as its automated paneling and bending lines, its welding robots, as well its intelligent storage processes and the new virtual reality experience. At the end of the tour, we started to look forward to the human tower show (Castells) next to the fair tent. This human tower show, one of the symbols of Catalan culture, which dates back to the 18th century and was included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2010, was very meaningful for this trip. Several different figures exhibited by the group consisting of about 20 people were watched by the guests with a flood of applause.

Following the trip, the group met at Club Náutico de Salou for cocktails and dinner. At the dinner, Helen Roberts from Global1Partners, Riza Latif from Fupa Lift and Zubin Mody from Index System India thanked the guests after giving information about their collaboration with Fermator.

Before

After